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Must See Exhibitions This Month

September 01, 2014

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RYAN HEWETT

ENLIGHTEN

Barnard Gallery

September 03 – October 14

Barnard Gallery is proud to present Enlighten – an exhibition of recent paintings by Ryan Hewett. A year after Genesis– his acclaimed debut solo show at the gallery – Hewett is back with a body of work echoing the brutal beauty of his earlier portraits, but displaying a greater fluidity that accompanies his growing confidence in the medium.

These works are fewer but larger in scale and they are more intense in their interrogation of self and other. With his densely loaded palette knife, Hewett scrapes and moulds his forms, caressing, bruising and bleeding the canvas, swirling between the associations of figuration one usually makes with portraiture and the sheer expressive energy of mark-making.

As Enlighten, the title of the exhibition, suggests, Hewett’s unfolding trajectory has become increasingly spiritual, complex and paradoxical. For him, portraiture has never been about external likeness; it is about turning the inside out and the articulation of an emotional journey of self-exploration and discovery.

Sidy Diallo will showcase his first solo exhibition Points et Itinéraires at the BRUNDYN Gallery. Points et Itinéraires meaning Points and Itineraries in English, alludes to movements to different parts of the world, continent, country or landscape and the activities that one engages in when in those spaces. The exhibition is an extension of key ideas that Diallo has explored in the past couple of years.

Among these are his fascination with the future of Africa and how it has been impacted on by global politics and economics. At the heart of this is his concern for the “African brain drain”, a phenomenon that sees numerous Africans migrating to Europe and America for education purposes and unfortunately never returning. Diallo perceives this as a loss for the continent, one that obviously requires the skills attained by these graduates that could potentially aid in the economic development of the continent. This insistence on returning to home is not a means used to prescribe and restrict the livelihoods of African scholars, but is rather a call to diversify the knowledge and skills found on the continent.

Stephen Friedman Gallery is pleased to present Kendell Geers’ fifth exhibition at the gallery, which follows his recent major retrospective at the Haus der Kunst in Munich, Germany. Born in South Africa and now living in Belgium, the show’s title Crossing the Line recalls both the journey of the artist’s cultural heritage crossing the equator and his recent move into painting.

Featured in the exhibition is a new body of work made from razor wire, a material that has been a signature for the artist throughout his career. Geers describes razor wire as “the sign of my childhood, the symbol of my nation, the curse of my ancestors.” A new series of paintings feature classical iconography entwined with intersecting lines and geometric shapes rendered in gold. Inspired by the Sienese painters from the thirteenth to fifteenth century, Geers interweaves the razor mesh with traditional iconography and abstract forms. The end result is a subtle meditation on the sacred and the profane, a common thread in Geers’ work.

http://www.stephenfriedman.com

OWUSU-ANKOMAH

MICROCRON BEGINS

October Gallery

September 18 –October 25

Using a palette of new colours, Owusu-Ankomah’s latest work further develops these possibilities, adding further visual signs of his own invention to the customary lexicon of adinkra symbols which each represent a particular concept used by the Akan-speaking peoples of Ghana. In the same Akan language kusum refers to sacred sites involved in the secret performances of mystery rites. Owusu-Ankomah extends his visual explorations in novel directions by developing innovative symbols, such as the Microcron – the circle of shining orbs signifying ‘universes inside universes,’ which so entrances the figure in the image above. This unique symbolic logic yokes together ancient traditions of secret knowledge with current speculation about the mysterious nature of reality derived from theoretical physics, which predicts the parallel coexistence of multi-dimensional universes within a single multiverse.

The exhibition, De(re)tritus’s is a culmination of Vivien Kohler’s work, exploring both his internal reflections and external influences of life in South Africa. according to the artist in an interview with Siobhan Keam, “My heritage, both in terms of race, as well as society, will play a large part in informing the work. My previous shows dealt more with the cares and feelings of others, this show however will be more introspective in its initial approach. All in all it will be quite a varied body of work tackling issues ranging from the deeply personal to that of the societal and political. My personal works are used as a starting point from which to investigate our shared narrative. As far as the materiality of the work, I feel this will be more expressive this time round. I am quite interested in the public’s reaction to my rawer metal work pieces. Also I am quite enjoying the political aspect in my newer works at the moment.”

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Oliver Enwonwu is founder and Editor-in-Chief of Omenka magazine, Director, Omenka Gallery and Chief Executive, Revilo. He holds a first degree in Biochemistry, advanced diploma in Exploration Geophysics (distinction), Post Graduate Diplomas in Applied Geophysics and Visual Art (distinction) and a Masters in Art History, all from the University of Lagos. He is the founder, Executive Director, and trustee of The Ben Enwonwu Foundation. He also sits on the board of several organizations including the National Gallery of Art, Nigeria and the Reproduction Rights Society of Nigeria. Enwonwu is also president of both the Society of Nigerian Artists and the Alliance of Nigerian Art Galleries.